Hands-on with KitKat on the Moto X: More of the same, less blue

Making the best overall Android phone a little more special.

Nineteen days. That’s how long it took Motorola to update its flagship Android handset, the Moto X, to KitKat, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. Among Android handset makers, that's as astonishing an accomplishment as breaking the four-minute mile. And it comes, no less, on a carrier not known for speedy software updates: Verizon Wireless.

The update came through on my personal Moto X just a few hours after news of the update was revealed, and we were eager to see how Motorola's build of KitKat would differ from the Nexus 5 and the other supported Nexus devices. It turns out that despite all the changes, not much has changed.

Motorola, a Google company, originally took a light touch visually with its Android 4.3 build on the Moto X, and the 4.4 build is just as conservative. The many visual tweaks to Android’s interface remain intact, with gray as the predominant shade. Basic OS elements like fonts, organization, and notifications remain consistent between the Nexus and Moto X builds.

Translucency effects are inconsistently applied across KitKat, including on the Moto X. This is most noticeable in the transition from the home screen to an app with a light background, as the translucent background changes to an opaque black. As noted in our KitKat review, Google has demonstrated a more consistent application of these effects in all sorts of apps, but complete consistency seems destined for a future update. Whether the change comes at the system level or through updates to individual apps, it can't come soon enough.

Mmmmm... translucent.

Ugh. Opaque.

Even the lock screen gets in on layering.

Opening the Phone app brings up the new search-optimized dialer and raises the QWERTY keyboard, not the dial pad. If you only call people in your contacts this is no issue. Want to dial an actual number? You’ll have a few extra key presses to make that happen.

Hmm... where's the dialpad?

Oh, what's that?

Ahh, there it is.

Of the Ars staffers with personal Android gear, I was the first to perform an in-place update to Android 4.4 rather than wiping the device first and performing a clean install. The process wasn’t without its issues. Once the update had completed, the Email app crashed repeatedly. The only remedy was to delete my Exchange account from the Settings app and then re-enter the account information through the (now stable) Email app. I spoke with Motorola’s dev team, and they suspect that a change in the way KitKat handles ActiveSync policies may be to blame. We’ll follow up with them once they know more; in the meantime, follow my steps to fix any broken Exchange access.

Active Display is unaffected by the update; notifications are still available through the display even while in standby. Google’s addition of a voice trigger for Google Now from the home screen remains a Nexus 5 exclusive, but Motorola’s Touchless Control voice commands are still present on the Moto X.

It’s no surprise that Motorola is the first OEM to update a handset to KitKat, and that’s not just a result of Google’s ownership of the manufacturer. Motorola has come a long way from Blur. Leaving the stock Android experience relatively intact while adding a few functional features should give Motorola a speed advantage in pushing updates.

Verizon isn’t famous for quickly pushing updates to Android handsets, though. Having been left out of the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 4 party, Verizon has even pushed back against activating data service on Google’s LTE-enabled Nexus 7 tablets. But just a few weeks after the software was first released and just a day after Motorola began its soak test for the update, Verizon became the first carrier to push out a KitKat update. Motorola has been Verizon's partner for the Droid line of phones, so it's possible that the update was expedited by Verizon in a deal that would see similarly speedy updates to the Droid Ultra, Maxx, and Mini. Having the only non-Nexus phones updated to KitKat could provide a sales boost for Verizon as we approach the holiday season.

Further Reading

The Moto X is probably not the ideal example of what third-party KitKat builds will look like. We expect HTC to use BlinkFeed as its primary home screen. We expect bright colors and UI tweaks from LG. We expect more bells, whistles, and water effects from Samsung. And we can expect Google to remain cagey about how long the Google Experience Launcher, effectively its Android skin, will remain a Nexus 5 exclusive. Opening it up to all Nexus devices would go a long way to providing a unified user experience for all of Google's own devices. Putting it on Google Play and allowing it to run on any recent device could provide a consistent experience for almost every Android user. Wouldn't that be something?

Update: An earlier version of this article stated that the dialer included in the Moto X is capable of business search. This feature is included in the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4 builds of KitKat but absent in the Moto X. We regret the mistake and will follow up with Motorola to find out why the feature is absent.

An earlier version of this article stated that the dialer included in the Moto X is capable of business search. This feature is included in the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4 builds of KitKat but absent in the Moto X.

Thank deity. If I want to call someone, it's rarely a business in my immediate vicinity.

You don't need to be rooted, don't need to have an unlocked bootloader, all you need is the drivers (when you install the SDK) and the OTA file. I did all of this on my completely stock, locked, non-rooted Nexus 7 2013. I realize the earlier link is for the Nexus 4 but I'd wait or find the OTA.

Thanks for the link. I went ahead and updated a N7-2013 using the OTA image but it took me awhile because I ran into USB driver issues. Especially when the N7-2013 is in sideload mode. It took the better part of an hour to fiddle with various machines and editing INF files to make it work. These pages helped a lot.

An earlier version of this article stated that the dialer included in the Moto X is capable of business search. This feature is included in the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4 builds of KitKat but absent in the Moto X.

Aww, that sucks. I wonder why? That's half the point of the new dialer.

It brings GoogleWallet improvements, not the app.. you still need to know about it and install it from GooglePlay - I actually heard the salesman pushing ISIS when I went to check out the colored backs in person with zero mention of GoogleWallet..

One thing I'm not clear on is whether Google Wallet still requires the special SIM from Verizon or not. ISIS won't work on NFC phones without some special SIM, which they don't include by default because why would they?

Now that ISIS is rolled out nation wide, I'd be willing to give a shot, but I don't have the correct SIM, and apparently the NFC workaround for Wallet is only for phones on 4.4…

Just a tiny aside, I played with the X for an extended period for the first time yesterday, and it was remarkable how little (ie basically as good as it gets, across OSs) touch lag it had compared to other Android flagships. The Xperia lagged a lot, the GS4 lagged a lot, but the X had almost imperceptibly little touch lag in browser scrolling (all in Chrome, so not even the best browser for it).

I'd almost wonder if touchscreen size doesn't correlate with touch lag? My ancient Nexus S even seemed better than some of the new huge flagships.

The auto-keyboard-popup in the dialer is bad. Covers the numpad button. People are gonna be confused.

The keyboard doesn't pop-up on mine unless you tap in the search box, which you're probably going to need to search by name. If you touch the numpad button first (after entering the phone app), you don't see the keyboard.

I've heard of an Exchange Activesync bug in KitKat. Sad to hear it still isn't fixed, and has made it onto the X

Admittedly, I been using less than 24 hours, but I have not encountered any Exchange Activesync bugs. Seems quite happy with our company Exchange server and my busy email account. Still getting used to the new mail app with the colored letter icons. I find it a bit harder to differentiate between read and unread mail (the subtle background color and boldface subject being the only difference). I do like the swipe to delete messages (a feature that I became accustomed to in my iPhone days).

Slightly OT but does anyone know how I can get this device in South Africa? I really, really want this device but Motorola still don't have any idea when it will be released beyond US borders. The more I read about it the more I want it...

I really, really wish they'd implement a simple "yes, I'd like to check for an update to the OS" like every other non-android OS out there. I do like to update, but that doesn't mean I want to do it when I next pull out my 2012 Nexus 7 to read a book vs when I just opened it up because I had a few moments free and fast internet access but, alas, no pending update icons.

Not sure I understand(?). There is a simple check for update button in settings-->about phone-->system updates. And when there is an update you get a notification and then it waits for you to OK the update process.

I've heard of an Exchange Activesync bug in KitKat. Sad to hear it still isn't fixed, and has made it onto the X

Admittedly, I been using less than 24 hours, but I have not encountered any Exchange Activesync bugs. Seems quite happy with our company Exchange server and my busy email account. Still getting used to the new mail app with the colored letter icons. I find it a bit harder to differentiate between read and unread mail (the subtle background color and boldface subject being the only difference). I do like the swipe to delete messages (a feature that I became accustomed to in my iPhone days).

It brings GoogleWallet improvements, not the app.. you still need to know about it and install it from GooglePlay - I actually heard the salesman pushing ISIS when I went to check out the colored backs in person with zero mention of GoogleWallet..

One thing I'm not clear on is whether Google Wallet still requires the special SIM from Verizon or not. ISIS won't work on NFC phones without some special SIM, which they don't include by default because why would they?

Now that ISIS is rolled out nation wide, I'd be willing to give a shot, but I don't have the correct SIM, and apparently the NFC workaround for Wallet is only for phones on 4.4…

No special SIM is required for Google Wallet on the Verizon Moto X running Kit Kat. All I had to do was install the latest version of Google Wallet, set it up, and everything worked. Made a couple of "tap and pay" payments today, no issue. The SIM isn't a "special" one, it's the one that came with the phone.

The whole point of the most recent Kit Kat and Google Wallet updates was to enable "Host Card Emulation" as mentioned here: